Leadership

Mike Gruia, Chairman

As co-founder & chairman of UMT, Mike Gruia is responsible for overseeing strategic direction, planning and execution. Mike’s leadership philosophy and professional experience mirrors UMT’s mission — combining consulting services with technology to deliver enduring results to clients. Mike focuses on strategic use of advanced methods to transform the way corporations operate and invest, and has led major assignments for financial, pharmaceutical, utility and manufacturing companies in the United States.
An active participant in UMT innovation, Mike has led UMT in the development of all UMT software products including Stratframes, UMT Portfolio Manager (acquired by Microsoft), Project Essentials and UMT360. These products have been ranked highly by all research analyst firms including Gartner, Meta (acquired by Gartner), Giga (acquired by Forrester) and Microsoft.
In his leadership roles, Mike has been a strong proponent of developing end to end solutions for customers combining strategic and process consulting with UMT-built software solutions.
In addition to UMT, Mike worked for Microsoft and was part of the engineering team that released Portfolio Server 2006 and 2007 and Project Server 2010.
Mike is a graduate of Technion Israeli Institute of Technology and Columbia University, New York with BSc, MSc and PE engineering degrees in management science and operations research.

Gil Makleff, CEO

Gil Makleff is CEO and co-founder of UMT Consulting Group and has focused his career for over two decades on helping Fortune 1000 companies improve their strategy deployment and optimize their investments in tactical and strategic goals. Taking techniques first developed at the start of his career in financial services at Chase Manhattan, Gil helped establish UMT in North America and Europe to further refine and develop tools in support of IT and business alignment.
With real world insights gleaned from clients’ executive management and dozens of strategy-alignment engagements in areas such as banking, insurance, biopharma and entertainment – Gil has been the constant standard-bearer of Enterprise Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) and has driven forward the cutting-edge concepts of the methodology he helped pioneer. His published articles in industry publications provide in-depth perspective on what drives success in cross-functional initiatives.
Gil’s creativity and ability to envision multiple, innovative solutions to clients’ problems has helped guide UMT to its current position as a successful, merit-based organization that values knowledge and capabilities above all. Knowledge management has been a particular passion of his, ensuring the company’s continued ability to innovate and leverage its evolving intellectual property through growth and geographical expansion.
Gil graduated from Columbia University with a degree in computer science and holds an MBA from the Stern School of Management at New York University.

Peter Iovino, President

Peter is actively involved in managing UMT Consulting Group's entire client base throughout North America. He is accomplished in corporate communication and process design as well as being a developer of UMT's methodology for Project and Portfolio Management and Business Alignment.
Peter's strong interpersonal and communication skills as well as his ability to develop strong client relationships have been instrumental in establishing UMT Consulting Group as a leader in the area of Enterprise Project & Portfolio Management.
Peter has over 15 years experience in consulting and for the last 10 years has focused on Portfolio Management where he has led engagements for over 50 clients focusing on initiative creation, selection, and management while augmenting UMT Consulting Group's best practices. He is involved in selling, planning, and leading Enterprise Project & Portfolio Management engagements for clients in a wide variety of industries including financial services, insurance, pharmaceuticals, utilities, manufacturing, and entertainment.
Peter has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communication from Wake Forest University with a focus in corporate communication. After graduating, Peter began his career at Chase Manhattan Bank and completed a twenty-four month training program in Technology and Operations Management Development.

Yorai Linenberg, CFO

Yorai Linenberg is a co-founder of UMT Consulting Group, and serves as the Chief Financial Officer as well as Managing Director of UMT Consulting Group's European Operations, which he co-founded in 1995. In addition to his role in business development, Yorai combines his background in science with strong leadership experience to successfully lead UMT Consulting Group engagements in project portfolio creation, selection, planning and management.
In this capacity, Yorai has been involved in leading and facilitating multiple senior-level initiatives within Times Top 100 companies in industries ranging from financial services, to retail, to transportation.
Yorai's vision of creating the "big picture" by combining multiple managerial and scientific disciplines has been essential to the development of UMT Consulting Group's toolset. This, together with his ability to introduce customised order into uncertain, chaotic environments, have led to dozens of successful implementations where UMT Consulting Group's methodology and tools are continuously delivering value to its clients.
Yorai attended the Tel-Aviv University where he earned BSc and MSc degrees in Physics, and an MBA degree from the Recanati Graduate School of Business.

Catalin Olteanu, Board Member

Catalin is a member of UMT Consulting Group’s board and intimately involved in guiding the company strategy, trajectory and evolution. Catalin brings world-class expertise in developing enterprise software solutions. He’s an expert in Project and Portfolio management and provides unique insights combined with solid implementation and consulting experience, gained through multiple Fortune 1000 client engagements in various industries and segments.
Catalin has been part of UMT’s leadership team since 2000, when he joined the company to manage UMT’s software development center in Romania. He was responsible for building the UMT Portfolio Manager suite which was acquired by Microsoft in 2006, and continued to manage the product’s growth as part of the Microsoft Project team post-acqusition. Since returning to UMT in 2010, Catalin has been responsible for leading the UMT 360 product and is now President of UMT 360 LLC.
Catalin has a degree in Computer Science from the Polytechnic University in Bucharest, Romania.

Oscar de Lucio, Partner

Oscar is a Partner at UMT Consulting Group with fifteen years of management consulting and operational experience in portfolio management, business strategy alignment and enterprise project office.
At UMT, Oscar leads consulting teams focused on transforming client organizations to maximize the value of their project and asset portfolios in alignment with business objectives. As a principal consultant, Oscar provides expertise developing and implementing methodologies, governance practices, processes and tools on topics ranging from strategic portfolio management to program and project execution. He is also the general manager of the UMT Institute, the UMT training and learning division, and the Regional Director in the South.
Prior to UMT Consulting Group, Oscar has worked in management consulting and international project management at Arthur D. Little, Compaq and DEC, with engagements across North America, Europe and Latin America. Oscar holds an MBA with focus on Management and Finance from the Stern School of Business at New York University and a BSc in Mathematics and Computing from the University Complutense of Madrid, Spain. Oscar also is a PMI certified Project Management Professional.

Thomas Malfi, Partner

Thomas Malfi, Partner, practice leader and Mid Atlantic Regional Director with UMT Consulting Group, has 20 years of Portfolio and Project Management implementation and consulting experience. Tom’s responsibilities include leading, planning and participating all aspects of Portfolio and Project Management, with primary focus on methodology development and governance, and the build, plan and manage lifecycle phases of portfolios and projects. Tom has extensive portfolio and project management experience in both New Product Development and IT. His background and implementations experience in varying business industries, including state and local government, provides a deep understanding of the varying issues all industries are facing. Along with Tom’s deep expertise of various industries, his ability to understand clients’ maturity and capabilities provides clients with the right size solution given their current needs and future growth opportunities. Tom has worked with several of UMT’s Fortune 1000 companies such as Abbott, Becton Dickinson and Company, California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), CIGNA, FMC, General Growth Properties, State of Illinois and Wyeth, implementing Project and Portfolio Management methodologies and solutions. Prior to joining UMT, Tom spent 13 years in the life insurance sector where he was an assistant vice president managing the policy services and annuities business relationship and internet strategy within the Advanced Technology Group. He specialized in the planning and prioritization of IT programs for the company's asset management subsidiaries.

Daniel Theander, Partner

Daniel is a Partner at UMT Consulting Group with over 15 years of management and operational consulting experience. He is the Southeast regional director and leader of UMT’s national Utility Industry practice. Daniel is focused on helping Fortune 1000 companies operationalize enterprise project and portfolio management – including methodologies, governance, business alignment, financial planning and control, metrics and gamification – to improve organizational performance. He is actively involved in all aspects of client engagements, providing real-world insight and a practical approach when solving client problems. His work on governance, decision-making, business alignment and Integrated Portfolio Analytics has been featured in a number of different industry publications. Prior to joining UMT, Daniel worked for Deloitte & Touche and American Management Systems (now CGI). Daniel is a native of Sweden and holds an MBA and a BA in Economics.

Fabrice Roche, Partner

Fabrice Roche, Partner and Midwest Regional Director with UMT Consulting Group, has over 15 years of Portfolio and Project Management implementation, software development and consulting experience. Fabrice is actively involved in managing, leading, planning and participating in all facets of Portfolio and Project Management, such as methodology development, governance, process design & definition, creation, prioritization, optimization and on-going management of portfolios and projects. He also has a strong financial background including Accounting and Corporate Finance. Fabrice has led and participated in multiple strategy consulting, business process and IT implementation projects for financial services, professional services & manufacturing clients in North America and Europe. He has worked with several Fortune 1000 companies including JPMorganChase, Wachovia, KeySpan Energy, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, IBM, Michelin, Renault Nissan, Arcelor, Alcatel, Dassault, National Savings, and others. Fabrice holds an MBA with focus on Management and Finance from the Stern School of Business at New York University and a Master of Science and Engineering from ENSTA, a leading French engineering school.

Benoit Millet, Partner

At UMT Consulting Group, Benoit has advised Fortune 1000 clients in the areas of New Product Development, IT Governance & Management and Capital Project Performance and Control, and has devised best practices and new analysis frameworks for these areas. He is also the New York Metro Regional Director. Prior to joining UMT Consulting Group, Benoit worked at Citigroup in the Investment Banking and Global Technology divisions. Previously, he held the General Manager role for a Product R&D group at Siemens-VDO, and was lead project manager at both Philips Electronics and TRW Automotive bringing innovations and launching high-tech products to markets worldwide.

Hans Bellen, Partner

Hans Bellen is a Partner with UMT Consulting Group and has over 10 years of experience in Microsoft Enterprise Project Management technologies including Project Server, SharePoint and Project Portfolio Server.
At UMT Consulting Group, Hans leads the technical council and has become a recognized authority on Microsoft Enterprise Project Management technologies having been involved at different levels in over 90 implementations, including business consulting, governance, technical architecture design and training.
Prior to UMT Consulting Group, Hans has worked in IT consulting at Verizon Business Cybertrust, with engagements across Western Europe.
Hans holds an MBA with focus on Management and Finance from the Stern School of Business at New York University and an MSc in Electrical Engineering from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

Chris Matero, Partner

Chris Matero is a Partner with UMT Consulting Group and Regional Director of the North. He has over 12 years of consulting experience designing and implementing Project and Portfolio Management solutions, establishing and maturing PMO’s and managing large scale projects and programs. Chris’s extensive experience has been leveraged across numerous Federal agencies and State Governments, as well as Fortune 500 companies in the Financial Services, Telecommunications, and Utilities industries in the U.S. and Europe.